When I was in 7th grade, my classmate was caught smoking cigarettes by her father.  He did not yell or scream; he did not tell her she was ruining her life; he did not lecture her on the dangers of smoking.  Instead he sat her down in the living room and had her smoke a cigarette in front of him… one after another… and then another.  She basically had to smoke until she threw up.  As she related this story to me the next day (embarrassed and a bit green), I was horrified.  What kind of father would do this to his child?   However, the result was… she never smoked again ( at least not through middle and high school).  Dad was a genius.  He imprinted upon her the taste of smoking until you puke.

On a similar note:

As a culminating event to our year long study and education of healthy nutrition for the elite athlete, today began the Belly Brain Experiment at CP.  There have been some very interesting observations in both behavior, attitude and performance.

Please read on.

As you know, a goal of CP is to develop the best possible version of each individual.  And because the things we ingest through the senses transforms us, CP takes great care in providing daily nutrition (intellectually, spiritually, physically) that serves the thinking, compassionate athlete.

Today, we offered something very different – a free reign of ‘food’ choices that are the antithesis of healthy.  (I use the term ‘food’ loosely here.)  Donuts, gummy bears, soda, starburst, Capri Sun, chocolate milk, Chips ahoy, (quite honestly there were things I did not recognize… but some of the students did!) served as post workout choices.  This is compared to the usual CP post workout foods: bagels, cream cheese, peanut butter, nuts, fruit, boiled eggs, smoothies, tacos. Lunch today was fried chicken strips and Kraft mac&cheese, compared to regular CP lunches of fresh meats and vegetables.

Some of the students dug in, some grazed, some refused. Healthy choices were also available all day.

The changes in behavior were astonishing – giddy, giggling, angry, foul-mouthed, sleepy, lethargic, vomited, could not add 3+4 (literally), begged for ‘real food’ (which was available all day), complained of not feeling well.  Academy practice was a disaster for these kids, too.

So what is the lesson?  Hopefully this will serve as a visceral experience that will imprint on them that the choices they make impact personal performance, attitude, and happiness.  Garbage in, garbage out… awesome in , awesome out.

Why are we doing this?  To EMPOWER your children.  Hopefully, they will begin to understand the POWER they have over who they are and how they behave, by these simple choices.

Below is a great article on gut health.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mark-hyman/5-steps-to-kill-hidden-ba_b_739213.html

~Carol

Led by Dio Miranda, and with the support of coaches, parents, and teachers alike, next week the students of ATA CP will embark on the “Belly/Brain Experiment”.  This will be a five-day lesson exploring the effect of different types of foods on the mental, physical and emotional state of the athlete’s body.

We will begin Tuesday with the more unfavorable meal choices – donuts, fried chicken, soda, various candies – move into Wednesday as a normal meal day at CP; on Thursday we will provide a plethora of healthier options – fresh fruit and vegetables, juices, roast chicken and beef and mixed nuts (basically, a normal day at CP). Friday, Dio will spend an hour discussing the benefits and detriments of sugars, proteins, carbohydrates, fats, and how the students felt – physically, mentally and emotionally – Monday through Friday.

This experiment is by no means mandatory; no one will be forced to consume anything they do not wish to consume. The goal is to encourage our student athletes to be mindful and aware of how certain types of foods shape their attitude and behavior both in academics and on the court.

We will announce the “Belly Brain Experiment” to the students this Friday.

from Coach Newman

I recently posted to my Facebook page that one of the best parts of my job is participating in the community building events that surround the Austin Tennis Academy.  A week ago Sunday it was participating in Esmeralda’s run.  Tonight is was being the Master of Ceremonies for three ATA Seniors signing their national  letters of intent to play college tennis.  Allie Carlisle: UT Tyler, Austin Priess: Abilene Christian University and Austin Mayo, Northern Colorado University all went through their ceremony this evening.

These events are rituals.  We have a formula, we follow the formula, it is comfortable and it is familiar.  The event starts with me welcoming everyone.  We alternate having these signings on Mon/Wed or Tue/Thur so that both Junior Development and Junior Academy players get to be a part of these inspiring moments.  All ATA Academy players and coaches are present.  Coaches talk about the grads, grads give speeches and then they sign their papers.  Some of the things that make this ceremony a ritual…Each player has a cake a balloons.  The cake always has the logo of their chosen school and the balloons are the colors of the school.  Each player signs their NLI and they sign an ATA pledge.  Players and parents sign the documents with the same pen that every player who has signed papers in the past 10 years has used to sign THEIR papers.  Each player gives a speech.  Many of those speeches are full of emotion, many tears are shed.  Everyone takes pictures and eats cake after each player’s ceremony is complete.

These are certainly special moments for the grads and their families who have spent years, if not a decade in pursuit of the goal of playing college tennis.  However, they are special for everyone else too.  For the younger high school students, they can begin to see themselves up there, giving a speech at their ceremony.  For our JD and JA students, they can begin to picture themselves playing as long as these grads and playing college tennis like these kids are going to do.  It can be inspiring for the younger ones.

It gives us all a chance to celebrate the passion, work, enthusiasm, joy and gratefulness that these young people have set a goal, worked long and hard to achieve it, and are now on their way to setting a new set of goals.  As I said, it is a ritual.

As we were walking out this evening, Coach Doug Davis commented:  “I can’t imagine another tennis program doing these signing ceremonies better”  “We are doing something very special with these events”.  I agree with Coach Davis.  If you made it this evening, thanks for coming.  If you did not, engage your ATA player tonight on what they learned at the signing!  And, we hope to see you at next year’s signings.